Just another new year

Here's a tune that has been playing in my mind on New Year's eve.

It's just another New Year's Eve,
Another night like all the rest.
It's just another New Year's Eve,
Let's make it the best.
It's just another New Year's Eve,
It's just another Auld Lang Syne,
But when we're through this New Year
You'll see, we'll be just fine.

On Christmas eve, I made icebox cake and punch, and had the helpers cook the spaghetti. I had brought fruitcake from Manila and bought ham and the rest at the nearby supermarket. Our celebration was tolerably cheerful, considering that only I, my two brothers, nieces and nephew, and the helpers were left there. Late in the afternoon, Nonoy (my younger brother) and I had gone to the only mall in town, Gaisano, to buy toys to fill the kids' pillowcases with. My siblings and I hung pillowcases when we were little, not socks, and now our nieces and nephew are carrying on the tradition. Nonoy and I hid the gifts in the trunk of my older brother's (non-functioning) car and waited till the kids were asleep before bringing them into my room, where I wrapped them up, then placed them in the pillowcases downstairs.

It's always nice to see the kids wake up, excitedly go downstairs and see their full pillowcases. It's heartwarming to see their delighted looks when they open their gifts and see their new toys. It's worth the trouble and expense I went into to make their Christmas happy and memorable for them.

On New Year's eve I had the valenciana cooked early in the morning as the helpers were going to their own provinces to spend the rest of the day with their families. My mom always cooked valenciana on New Year's eve. She taught my sister-in-law, who cooked it every year before she left for Hongkong. Toto cooked bulalo! Yum. Except the soup dripped with fat. Toto always bought the best cow parts--the mammaries, bone marrow and the savory fats.

The rest of the holidays were spent playing or watching DVDs with the kids, bringing them to the beach (though I only bathed there once :( ), and working in an internet cafe in the nearby Gaisano Marketplace. I met once with some friends and on the 31st with my best friend Eva. And of course, I ate batchoy! Lots of it. I also went shopping for the kids on my last day in town. Milk, biscuits, oatmeal, baby bath--stuff to last for at least a month. I really pity them because they only have the yayas to look after them with my mom, sis-in-law and I gone. I've been trying to convince Toto to move to a province nearer Manila (e.g. Bulacan) so that Nonoy and I could at least go home every weekend. To no avail.

I tried going to sleep after dinner on New Year's eve, but of course couldn't, with all the noise and fireworks exploding outside my window. I got a little scared that the firecrackers would somehow get in and set the room on fire. I ended up getting up and joining the others downstairs. The kids had gone down from their beds to watch the fireworks.

Now I'm in Manila and feeling not a little depressed. More later. Happy New Year.